Kennedy, Senate Commerce Democrats File Smart Act to Allocate C-Band Auction Proceeds
Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., filed their Spectrum Management And Reallocation for Taxpayers (Smart) Act Tuesday in a bid to designate the proceeds from a coming auction of bandwidth on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. Aides to Kennedy and Schatz confirmed the bill’s filing to us ahead of a formal announcement.
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The Smart Act would allocate $5 billion in C-band spectrum sales to fund incumbents’ relocation, an additional $1 billion in incentive payments to satellite companies and a further $5 billion to the U.S. Treasury for deficit reduction. Any additional funds from spectrum sales would be for rural broadband and next-generation 911 projects, in keeping with previous proposals from Kennedy and congressional Democrats.